Same disclaimers as before.

Chapter 6: Missions

Josh stared at the door to the warehouse. He was shaking violently, half from his super-speed, half from his nerves. The street was empty and the wind blew softly through the trees on the sidewalk. This warehouse, according to Superman, was the base of Gorilla Grodd where the ape leader was holding Josh's friend and mentor, the Flash, hostage.

Josh ran at super-speed across the street, putting his hand on the door to the warehouse. He immediately shot back across the street, hugging himself in fear. He couldn't do this! He was an English major for God's sake! He had been on a high-anxiety medication since he was eleven! He was no hero, no matter what powers the Exobytes had given him.

But the Flash needed his help. He ran across the street.

Gorilla Grodd would kill him! He ran away.

But Superman said he was the only one that could save Flash. He ran back to the warehouse.

Josh sighed and rubbed his head. "C'mon Josh," he muttered to himself, "Do something important for once in your life." He placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes. He sent a wave of fire through his arm, melting the metal door into a puddle of liquid steel. Inside looked like just a regular, two story warehouse. Josh stepped inside hesitantly. There were empty shelves scattered around, a few boxes here and there, and group of barrels huddled together against the far wall, but nothing to indicate that hyper-intelligent gorillas were using it as a military base.

Josh walked around, using the fire in his hand to light the dark room. He passed the barrels and gulped as he saw a large 'Highly Flammable' on the sides and quickly backed away. He stopped and stared at the barrels. He turned his head to the side and saw a glimpse of light in the cracks between the barrels. He peered at the slight opening and backed up slowly. When he felt he was a sufficient distance away, Josh raised his hand and narrowed his eyes. With a bit of concentration, he formed a small, base ball-sized orb of fire in his hand. Like a major league pitcher, Josh wound up and tossed the fireball into the barrels.

The explosion was massive and unlike anything Josh had ever seen outside of the movies. The force of the explosion threw him back against the far wall. When the blast subsided, Josh slid to the ground and rubbed his head. Where the barrels once stood, there was now a gaping hole in the wall where a hidden stairwell led down into the earth. Josh stood up and rolled his shoulders. A few black-headed gorillas peeked out from the stairwell to see what had caused the explosion. As soon as they saw Josh, they began hooting and grunting wildly, running back down the stairs.

Josh sighed and ran after them at super-speed. He squeezed between them and held out his hands to the side, clothes-lining the two apes. They stumbled down the stairs, landing on their heads with twin thuds. Josh walked down the stairs into a metal-walled room. It was lit by florescent lights. "Well, at least they're environmentally friendly," muttered Josh.

The room opened into an empty, metal hallway. Josh walked down it, his hands ready to turn into flaming fists at any moment. He rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a large group of gorillas in blue harnesses with futuristic-looking guns. The gorillas and Josh stared at each other in confusion for a moment, but then the gorillas leveled their weapons. Josh sighed and crouched down, raising his fists as they burst into flame. "Here we go again."

. . .

Ariel dove through the air like a falcon. She pulled up just at the entrance to the science lab. She spared a quick look around and grimaced at the disaster zone that was the Metropolis University campus. Police were scattered around, fighting off purple-skinned leeches that were sucking the life from fleeing students.

Here and there, Ariel saw flashes of capes. New heroes, she assumed, Exobyte powered meta-humans like herself who had sided with the Justice League. Normally, she would leave things to them, but there was no time now. Power Girl was inside and she needed to be warned to stay away from the power-draining parasites. Ariel opened the door and flew inside.

She found herself in a long hallway. Ariel gasped and ducked behind a nearby column when she saw she was not alone. A purple, goliath shambled up and down the hallways. Ariel gripped her head and screamed silently as it passed; the creature's thoughts were powerful and overwhelming.

Hungry. Must feed. There is food near…Kryptonian food!

Ariel massaged her temples in an attempt to ward off the thoughts. They were making her hungry herself, it made her feel like she should help Parasite eat Power Girl. He was hungry, she was food; it was simple. She shook her head and took a deep breath. She hadn't used the meditation technique she had been taught to use in years, but she needed to clear her mind. She closed her eyes and focused on the symbol in her mind; a jagged skull with twin horns and four piercing eyes. Slowly, the image engulfed her thoughts, calming her body and blocking out Parasite's thoughts as he marched by the pillar she hid behind.

"I will get through that barrier!" the giant leech roared, breaking Ariel's concentration, "No force field can stop me forever, Power Girl!" Ariel looked across the hallway. There was an arch leading into another hall. It was covered in a red shield of light, a solid force field. Behind it, Power Girl was floating a few feet off the ground, her arms folded over her chest.

"Parasite," she smirked, "You couldn't have planned this yourself. What's really going on here?"

Parasite grinned and slammed his body against the force field. It flickered slightly, but did not yield. Power Girl didn't even flinch. "I'm only here for dinner!" he growled, "I'm starving!"

Power Girl rolled her eyes. "You're always hungry, Parasite. My powers won't sate you."

"You can't stop the hunger!"

Power Girl sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "It's like dealing with a child," she muttered, "A child with super powers and hostages." She looked up at Parasite. "Look, call back your forces and I won't beat you up too badly."

Parasite laughed. "You're over confident, Power Girl."

"What makes you say that? I'm behind a shield, but I can blast you away with my heat vision without touching you. If you can't touch me, you can't absorb my powers."

Parasite smirked evilly. "Under normal circumstances, absolutely. However, my subordinates have already infiltrated this building's basement where the generator is stored. In other words, this force field should be down right about…" The force field flickered quickly and vanished. Power Girl's eyes widened and she raised her hands in defense. Parasite charged at her. Down the hall, a door burst open and a swarm of small, purple parasites trampled out.

Ariel gasped and looked back and forth between Power Girl and the swath of parasites down the hall. She groaned and ran out from behind the pillar. She put her hand on the ground and used her powers to fold the marble tiles around her fists into stony boxing gloves. She charged towards the swarm of parasites with a wild and frightened howl.

The parasites stopped in their tracks, staring in confusion at the crazy girl with Ace bandages wrapped around her head and stone boxing gloves. Their hesitation was Ariel's opportunity. She slammed her stone-covered fist into the lead parasite, sending the monster into the air. It hit the ceiling with a satisfying thud and fell down in front of Ariel. She backed away with a startled yelp. The other parasites growled and leapt at her. Ariel spun left and right like a ballerina as they attempted to dog pile her. After a few moments, one managed to grab her arm and she gasped. Her arm went numb and she felt a cold creep across her body. Her head was exploding in agony as she felt her mental powers slipping away.

"Let her go!" a whoosh of powerful wind slammed into the parasite, sending it reeling. Power Girl slammed into the ground next to Ariel and punched the floor. The resulting shockwave sent the parasites flying as Power Girl kept a tight grip on Ariel. "You all right, kid?" she asked, setting the girl down. Ariel nodded nervously and rubbed her arm. "Good. Listen, if we can draw them into the lecture hall, we'll have more space to work with. Follow me." With that, Power Girl leapt into the air, flying off down the hall. Ariel followed her, her left arm hanging down loosely and her stone gloves slipping off and shattering on the floor.

The hallways twisted and turned like a maze. Every time they turned a corner, Ariel could see the mass of parasites, led now by the big purple-people eater himself, close on their tail. Finally, Power Girl burst through a pair of double doors. Ariel flew into the room and immediately shot upwards. As the main Parasite entered, lunging for Power Girl. Ariel reached behind her and broke off a large chunk of the stone wall with her powers. With a grunt of effort, she threw it down on Parasite. It cracked over his skull and he fell to the ground like a sack of bricks. Unfortunately, his swarm of followers simply leapt over his body and charged Power Girl. She slapped a few away, but Ariel could see how every punch made her weaker, slower. Ariel fell to the ground and placed her palms on the floor. She closed her eyes and gasped.

She could feel it all. Through her palms, she could feel the individual molecules that made up the tiles. Ten feet away, she could feel the swarm of parasites and she could feel Power Girl fighting them off. Ariel grunted and a vein began to bulge in her forehead. From the ground erupted multiple spikes that strategically shot up to trap the limbs of the parasites and immobile them. Ariel groaned and slumped over, her energy completely spent. Her brain throbbed painfully. Power Girl ran to her side and helped her to lie down. "Good work, kid. What do you call yourself? Bandage Girl? Did Ace sponsor you or something?"

What did she call herself? She was too tired to think of an alias. "Ariel," she murmured.

Power Girl nodded. "I get it. New to the game, not entirely sure what to go by. It's cool." There was a chattering noise and both girls looked over their shoulders to see a second swarm of parasites standing in the doorway, looking at them like they were steaks on a platter.

"Power Girl?" Ariel whispered.

"Yeah, kid?"

"I think you'll have to take care of this solo." Ariel closed her eyes and let the darkness overwhelm her, sending her into the realm of the unconscious.

. . .

Josh punched left and ran right. Then he punched right and ran left. He repeated this, occasionally stooping to dodge the occasional bullet or fist, but always managing to clear it. He swooped to the side to avoid a wild punch and returned it with three of his own, making the gorilla stumble into the line of fire of his comrade. It was this confusion and Josh's super-speed that allowed him to take down the patrol of gorillas in less than a minute.

When they were all on the floor, unconscious or smoking or both, Josh rested on his knees, catching his breath. His hands were still steaming slightly when he rose back up and cracked his back. With the hallway empty and unprotected, Josh slowly walked forward. The hallway eventually opened up into a wide room with a raised platform. Scattered around the room were blue, opaque orbs where humans were desperately trying to punch their way out. A few gorilla engineers were fiddling with machines around the room. As Josh watched, a gorilla with a pouch strapped over his shoulder lumbered over to an orb with a screaming woman inside. He drew a remote from his pouch and pressed big red button.

The woman shrieked as she watched her hands become hairy and she quickly morphed into a gorilla. She quieted down and her blue force field shrunk down and disappeared.

"Excellent," grunted the gorilla, "Our new software has increased the speed of the devolution process by 54%."

Another gorilla gave a low laugh. "It's almost like some of these humans are worth more than they appear."

A third gorilla scowled. "Don't kid yourselves," he warned, "Lex Luthor will be one of us just as all the other humans." Josh gave a small gasp. It had been rumored that Lex Luthor, wealthy Metropolis businessman, and his company, Lexcorp, had engaged in shady business practices, but never could he imagine that Luthor would fund or even support these tyrannical apes.

Unfortunately, his quiet, surprised gasp did not go unnoticed. A gorilla glanced up sharply and growled as he saw Josh's head peeking around from the hallway. "Human!"

"Where?"

"There!" They all drew guns and began firing. Josh ran behind a blue ball as he dodged the blasts.

"Get us out of here!" Yelled the man trapped in the bubble. Josh grimaced as an energy beam shot over his head.

"Working on it." He muttered. He took a deep breath and remembered the training room. He focused on the rate of fire, waiting patiently for a break. After a few seconds, the blasts that went over his head became slightly less frequent. That was all he needed. Josh flipped over the bubble and ran at the nearest gorilla. He barreled into it, his full force and fire being pushed into his legs. He hit the massive ape, sending it into the far wall.

A blast came so close to his head, he could smell his nose hairs burning. He quickly ducked into a roll and landed with a crouch right in front of one of the gorillas. He leaped up, pushing his inner fire through his arms. His fist slammed into the gorilla's jaw and the gorilla sank slowly to the ground. The last gorilla roared angrily and tossed his gun to the side, choosing instead to use his fists. He swung wildly at Josh who ducked under him and wrapped his arms around the gorilla's neck. He concentrated and the fire in his arms burst out of his pores, like thousands of tiny rockets in the gorilla's face. For a moment, the ape screeched in pain, but after a moment, fell to the ground, unable to take the heat.

Josh dropped the gorilla and looked around, searching for a way to shut off the force fields.

"There!" shouted one of the prisoners, pointing to a consol on the wall, "They used that to put us in these!" Josh ran over to the touch screen consol, his eyes darting over the various options. "Well?"

Josh threw up his hands. "I can operate Microsoft Office and that's it." His hands became engulfed in flame and he brought them down hard on the computer, melting straight through the metal and frying the circuitry. There was a slight hum as the machines around the room powered down, including the bubble force fields. The prisoners ran from the room, a few shouting quick thanks at Josh before they left.

There was a hissing sound and Josh turned to see a door on the far wall slide open. Beyond it, the Flash was standing in another force field, his arms crossed and his feet tapping impatiently. The hero glanced over his shoulder and did a double take when he saw Josh. Flash put a finger to his lips in the universal symbol for silence and Josh crept forwards. The room the Flash was held in was a large hall, roughly the size of the warehouse that stood above them. Behind the Flash was a large computer with whirling buttons and lights. Beyond that, at the far end of the hall, Josh could see a massive gorilla, even bigger than the rest, wearing a cape and fiddling with a second large computer and a tube he recognized as a teleportation pad.

"Good thing you came when you did," the Flash whispered, "Grodd'll turn me into a primate any second now. Destroy that computer!" he jerked his thumb at the consol behind him. Without wasting a second, Josh ran over to it and thrust his molten-not hands through the device. The gorilla spun around, glaring at Josh as the computer melted and the Flash's bubble burst. The speedster ran forward. "It's over, Grodd!" he yelled, barraging the ape's chest with a flurry of blows.

Josh blinked. "Wait, that's Gorilla Grodd?" The ape snarled and punched the Flash, sending the hero skidding away with his monster strength. Grodd's eyes flashed purple and Josh felt something tap him on the shoulder. He turned and gasped at the purple gorilla behind him. The ape smashed his face with its hammer-like fist. Josh stumbled into a second gorilla's chest who immediately hit him on the skull.

For a few moments, all Josh could experience was pain. Then the Flash snapped his fingers in front of his face. Josh blinked and looked around, seeing that the only gorilla in the room was Grodd, who was climbing out of a gorilla-sized hole in the wall.

"He's an illusionist," explained the Flash as Josh shook his head to clear his mind, "He likes to play mind games. Keep him on his toes and he can't focus."

Josh nodded. "Got it. Hold him off for a second, I need to do something."

"Sure." The Flash ran off to engage Grodd. Josh knelt down and undid his laces. He stood and kicked off his special, fire-proof boots. In his diaphragm, his fire smoldered excitedly. With a wild and cracking battle roar, Josh ran forward, a trail of fire igniting in his footsteps. The Flash jumped away from Gorilla Grodd just in time for Josh to run several circles around the ape, trapping him in a ring of fire. Grodd howled in pain as Josh dashed to the center of the room and turned. He dug his flaming foot into the ground and charged. Just as he reached the gorilla, Josh jumped, his legs carrying him through the fire. His fist, tinged with sparks, slammed down on the top of Gorilla Grodd's head. The ape groaned and fell over. Josh quickly used the vortex technique Flash had taught him to smother the flames before the gorilla's fur could catch fire.

"I hate the smell of burning hair," he muttered.

Flash folded his arms and walked up next to him. "Really? If you're going to use one liners, than make them good. Heck, even 'lights out' or 'someone's been a bad, bad gorilla' would've worked here.

Josh took a deep breath. It was an important decision, but he knew in his heart that he had made up his mind the second he had walked in the warehouse. "Well, maybe you could help me with the whole one-liners thing."

Flash frowned. "Why would you need to learn-" his eyes widened, "Oh! Wow, are you serious?"

Josh shuddered. "I don't think I've ever been so serious in my life." Flash held out his hand and Josh took it and shook briefly.

"Well then," Flash said, "I guess we should start from the beginning. Let's get Grodd to the holding cells on the Watchtower first, though."

Josh looked down on the unconscious gorilla. "How do you plan to do that? I could probably lift him with my fire, but I'd probably burn him in half in the process."

Flash laughed. "Ha! No, that won't be necessary. Luckily, Grodd was in the process of bringing in some of his troops from Gorilla City."

Josh stared at him with wide eyes. "From where?"

"Never mind, just help me get him on the teleporter pad." Josh knelt down and helped Flash drag the massive mammal across the floor over to the pad. Flash dashed over to the computer Grodd had been tinkering with and plugged in a few coordinates and numbers. He dashed over to the teleportation pad just as a bright light engulfed the three of them.

When the light cleared, Josh found himself in the massive main chambers of the Watchtower. It was different now than it was before, more organized and less panicked. Heroes of all ages, sizes, and colors were racing, joking, talking, and socializing. Some flew, showing off their long capes. Some climbed up straight walls with no handholds just to prove they could. Fire, ice, rocks, wind, plants; all of them and more spurted up occasionally as the new heroes showed off.

"Welcome back," said Flash, "Now, let's get this ole feller to holding and I'll help you put something together."

. . .

Ariel slowly opened her eyes to a bright light. She winced and rolled away. She realized she was lying on an unimaginably comfortable bed. She slowly sat up and took in her surroundings. She was in a white room with a spotless curtain pulled around her bed. The curtain pulled back and Power Girl smiled over at her. "Hey kid!"

Ariel rubbed her eyes. "Where am I?"

"Watchtower Med Bay," said Power Girl, "You fainted during our little tussle with Parasite so I brought you here. Took the liberty of doing an X-ray while you were out." Power Girl pulled up a plastic chair and sat down next to the bed. "Turns out your Exobytes weren't lined up with your DNA properly, making it hard to control your powers and giving you massive headaches when you use them too much."

Ariel rubbed her head. "Um, okay…is there any way to fix that?"

"We have people working on a treatment as we speak. You're not the only one with this problem. Until we have something for you though, you should take it easy with the powers." Power Girl stood up, "Get some rest. I need to go report to Superman." She started to leave, but paused and turned back. "By the way, kid," she said, "That was some impressive stuff back there. I talked to the doctors and they said that you shouldn't have been able to pull that spike trick even with normal Exobytes." She smiled, "You might be something special, kid. Thanks for the save." She hesitated, "Huh, not often I'm on the other end of that." She shrugged and closed the curtain behind her.

"Forgive her," said a voice. Ariel turned sharply and gasped as she stared at Raven, leaning against the wall and checking her purple-polished nails. "She's not usually this talkative."

Ariel clutched her blanket tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not here."

"Oh," Ariel relaxed, but only slightly, "Another mental projection. Is this a side effect of my messed up Exobytes?"

Raven shrugged. "Beats me. Ask me about the third circle of Hell and I can describe it in graphic detail, but ask me about the basics of physics or biology and I fold like a bad poker player."

Ariel groaned and rubbed her wrists. It was then that she noticed that her sleeves were missing. "Oh God!" She gasped, scrambling against the headboard of the bed, "My sleeves! What happened to my sleeves?"

"They needed to take a blood sample," said Raven, "Can't take a sample without a vein and they can't find a vein without a clear arm."

Ariel was hyperventilating. "They saw my scars," she whispered in horror, "Oh God, they saw my scars!"

"And they didn't care."

Ariel stared at Raven. "What?"

Raven rolled her eyes, "We're superheroes, Ariel. We fight, sometimes really violently. We've seen worse wounds then suicide attempts."

Ariel was completely unsure of how to react. She felt like her pain and depression was being demeaned. On the other hand, Raven had a good point; these people had probably seen victims who were little more than living corpses. She sighed. "So what now?"

Raven shrugged. "I guess that's up to you."

Ariel rubbed her temples. "I'm not the best a decision making."

"You don't have to be. You just have to ask yourself if you want to help people or not."

Ariel groaned. "Did I just become a superhero?"

Raven grinned, her sparkling white teeth and pale skin a complete contrast to her dark purple dress. "Yup."

. . .

Lex Luthor stared at the screen before him. The Joker's pasty white face and yellow grin sneered back at him.

"Oh, please Lexy," pleaded the Joker, "Just for tonight! The Boy Blunder and the GCPD are hassling my girl Harley again down at Amusement Mile and I'm too busy to deal with them!"

Lex sighed and steepled his fingers. "I told you, Joker; the boy's mental conditioning isn't complete. If we send him into the field now, I might reverse the entire process."

"Look, Lex you old fox, I'm a business man, you're a business man. I'm sure we can work something out."

Lex almost laughed. "Joker, you're a psychotic mass-murderer with no sense of emotion or regret…on second thought, you are the epitome of business men. But what do you have that I could possibly want in return for Devon's services?"

Joker cackled madly. "I have a private supply of Exobytes just lying around. Didn't you say you needed some spare Exobytes for research?"

"Hmm, so I did," Lex said, "Very well, I want 300,000 Exobytes delivered by unmarked trucks to the Lexcorp building. I'll send over Devon right away." Lex pressed a button and terminated the connection. He pressed another and a tall woman with black, braided hair. "Mercy, get me Project Songbird."

. . .

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